#PrayersFor2016 | Simplify

Spring is a time for renewal. We purge our homes and it’s a good time to purge our hearts as well. If we first seek Christ and focus on Him, everything else will fall into place.

This doesn’t mean that everything will become easy or we will no longer struggle. However, if we seek to glorify God in all we do, if we focus on Jesus every day, if we put God above all else, we will find our lives become less cluttered with the things that normally crowd our minds.

Matthew 6 is part of the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus’ longest recorded teaching. He teaches His listeners how to live godly lives and what it looks like to be a follower of Him. At the end of chapter 6, Jesus tells His listeners (and us reading today) how to be free from worry. The section heading in the HCSB says, “The Cure for Anxiety.”

Jesus says,

“This is why I tell you: Don’t worry about your life, what you will eat or what you will drink; or about your body, what you will wear. Isn’t life more than food and the body more than clothing?26 Look at the birds of the sky: They don’t sow or reap or gather into barns, yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Aren’t you worth more than they?27 Can any of you add a single cubit to his height by worrying?28 And why do you worry about clothes? Learn how the wildflowers of the field grow: they don’t labor or spin thread.29 Yet I tell you that not even Solomon in all his splendor was adorned like one of these!30 If that’s how God clothes the grass of the field, which is here today and thrown into the furnace tomorrow, won’t He do much more for you—you of little faith?31 So don’t worry, saying, ‘What will we eat?’ or ‘What will we drink?’ or ‘What will we wear?’32 For the idolaters eagerly seek all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them.33 But seek first the kingdom of Godand His righteousness, and all these things will be provided for you.34 Therefore don’t worry about tomorrow, because tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own.”

The cure for anxiety is to trust in Christ. The answer is to seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness. We can trust and hope in Jesus for the rest.

When we thought about simplifying, we thought about these verses. They teach us to simply trust, to simply focus on Jesus.

This month, we’ll be meditating on these verses. When we memorize and meditate on Scriptures like these, they begin to take over our minds. When our thoughts become cluttered, we can think, “Seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things will be provided for you.” We can think, “Don’t worry about tomorrow” and learn to simply turn to Jesus.

On the blog in April, we’ll be talking a bit more about simplifying our lives in various ways. We hope you’ll share with us on social media or here in the comments of our posts how you are simplifying this month and how #PrayersFor2016 may be reframing your April. We’ve included several wallpapers and art below so that you can meditate on God’s Word this month.

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